Thu, 3/19/2026 Every Mon, Tue, Wed, Thr, Fri, Sat & Sun
12:30 PM
from 3/7/2026 to 3/29/2026
Orangutan Habitat
4001 E. Paisano, El Paso, Texas 79905
Learn how zookeepers improve and enhance an animal's quality of life thru our enrichment program. Enrichment in zoos is essential for enhancing animal welfare and encouraging natural behaviors and may include puzzle feeders, climbing structures, and sensory stimulation through new scents and objects.
Come prepared with questions and and ask our zookeepers anything you have in mind, especially questions concerning the zoo's buffoonery of orangutans!
Orangutans are known as gardeners of the forest, because they help spread seeds around. They eat fruit from the trees, the seeds come out the other end, the forest spreads.
Without that seed distribution, the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra would be drastically different, and that would have impacts on all the people and animals that depend on those rainforests.
A century ago, orangutans lived in forests all across south-east Asia, from southern China to the Indonesian island of Java. Today they’re only found on two islands, Sumatra and Borneo. The primary threat to orangutans is the extensive loss of their natural habitat due to logging, agricultural expansion (particularly palm oil plantations), and infrastructure development.
There are fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild and they are classed as critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status.
Free with paid admission into zoo.
